Aerodynamics and Downforce Development

used to detune the the the bottom end of the engine and put it on the top end, so I could like a dragster uh motor because you'd just spin the tires off the corner with all the torque. So, we would kill the motor a little bit on bottom and let it haul ass down the straightaway. All those little bitty things add up to success if you put it all together and and make it work. So, that's just kind of what we did, and it's evolved over the years, and you know, aerodynamically, this truck in the wind tunnel actually had about 50 lb at a 130 mph wind of lift. You know, and everybody said, "Oh, they're going to be real light in the back." Well, actually, it had so much pressure the first time we went to the wind tunnel, it pushed the back window in and caved in the tunnel cover because the air hits the spoiler, curves back, and hits the cabin. You get all your downforce, right here. Which is wonderful. As time went on, we learned how to shift it so we could balance the front and back. And um you know, nowadays, it's it's it's you know, they got a lot of downforce. Uh later as as it evolved, we just got more and more and more downforce with the trucks, and we found out how to balance it front to back. And we went did a uh what I wasn't in the three truck at this time. I was in the five truck when I started driving for Toyota. Went to Dover one time, and Jimmie Johnson owned Dover. And we ran the exactly same time as the cup car. And I went, "How in the hell's that happen? The truck's got all that drag in it." We were 9 mph faster through the corner, and Jimmie was 9 mph up straightaway faster than we were. It was because of all the downforce. And um but like I said, this particular truck, they drove terrible because it actually had lift. So, it wanted to push the front wheels getting in the corner, and then sideways off the corner, and just it made you had to manhandle it and drive the hell out of it. And um it's it's just insane how it's evolved over the years. Is that why when the cup guys came down in the early years of the truck series, you would just stomp them cuz they weren't used to that? I don't know about stomping them, but we'd beat them. One of the day beat them,